An exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the architect B. G. Barkhin, representing the combined work of a glorious architectural dynasty. As Yuri Avvakumov notes in his blog on Facebook, “the Barkhin's creative assets include the Izvestia building, the Museum of Cosmonautics, theatrical scenography, and scientific and teaching activities”. And all this wonderful heritage is suddenly presented as … rubbish, the author of the blog writes about the exhibition: “In appearance, this is not even a hospice, but, God forgive me, a homeless man, in which museum-quality things are mixed with foam board photos, the works have not been restored, everything is unkempt, glasses are unwashed, hung sloppy … ". In this case, the well-known curator believes, it is better not to show anything at all and not to remind students that the profession of an architect is not prestigious, unnecessary to anyone, that the life of an architect in old age is wretched, that his work interests no one, that he leaves no contribution to culture, a tick."
The exhibition was made by “blessed people, without whom it would be unbearably sickening,” Katya Sholts writes in response to Avvakumov. “And since no one from our super-professional community even looks towards“museum-quality things”, then I hope you can leave these people with their small exhibitions made on their knees in halls far from the public.” But in the opinion of Mikhail Belov, this is not even an exhibition, but a "reminder": the architect himself, for example, recalled the story of one of his sketches, which hung in B. G. Barkhin, and now he has appeared in the current exhibition: “Barkhin appreciated his students so much that it was natural for him to highly appreciate the sketches of a 20-year-old boy,” Belov notes. “Now they don’t do that: either the young men with sketches are extinct, or Fomin is right and intelligence has been wiped out.”
But the philosopher Alexander Rappaport, in one of the last articles in his blog, concludes that the main thing has been translated in architecture today - its content. For decades it fought against formalism, in the USSR - in favor of socialist realism, in the West - under the banner of functionalism, the philosopher writes, and as a result, "there was no socialism or functionalism left in it, and everything turned into an elegant game of postmodern formalism or geometry." The current architects, according to the author of the blog, “have dropped out of the circle of enlightened philosophers and humanists,” and the modern cultural establishment is now absolutely indifferent to it. And yet Rappaport expects a return to the architecture of meaning, because history, in his words, has repeatedly shown that the new and living appears unexpectedly, when nothing already foreshadows it.
The next post is about "young men with sketches", maybe not exactly those whom Mikhail Belov had in mind, but who fill the lack of architectural professionalism with an active civic position. Ilya Varlamov and Maxim Katz from City Projects proposed their alternative to the megaproject for the reconstruction of Leninsky Prospekt; with its help, they hope to convince the Moscow authorities to fight against traffic jams, turning streets into highways. Instead of building new flyovers and tunnels, City Projects consider it reasonable to create a high-speed tram line, bike paths and walking areas in the center of the avenue.
However, no matter how humane these proposals look, most of the users are still not ready to switch to public transport. The initiators of the project now hope to convince them of this with the help of foreign experts - “two reputable scientists-transport workers from France and the USA and one practicing transport worker from Norway”. The City Projects are going to order them for an independent examination of the current proposals of the mayor's office to combat traffic jams, for which donations are already being actively collected in the magazine of Maxim Katz. "The conclusions of the overseas agents of influence are not worth a dime," the users, in turn, doubt. “For the experts to be able to analyze the transport of Moscow, we need a coherent general strategic master plan, which does not exist,” notes, for example, design_n1. And yakimovmihail advises “to buy not opinions (expertise), but knowledge and technologies”, so that after foreign specialists leave, develop their progressive ideas on their own.
But blogger Yuri Kochetkov, in turn, is sure that the mayor's office is just listening to the opinion of foreign experts: it is with their help, the blogger believes, that the capital's authorities switched from the development of the newly joined territories to a huge reserve of Moscow industrial zones. First, i.e. "Removal of residential areas in the region", of course, is easier, writes the author of the blog, since industrial areas, as a rule, have many problems, ranging from owners to pollution. But on the other hand, it is the first path that is a dead end in terms of transport and logistics development. Meanwhile, the RUPA urban community was arguing about the future of industrial zones. For example, Dmitry Narinsky sees in them, in addition to commercial housing, also the potential for the creation of new public spaces: “We know that there are very interesting proposals for the creation of campuses in these territories, and Ostozhenka (Gnezdilov did not accidentally become the chief architect of NIIPI General Plan ") generally considered these territories for the Parliamentary Center." However, according to Alexander Antonov, public spaces separated from housing are an illusion, and the fashion for them will soon pass. And Yaroslav Kovalchuk reminded that industrial zones do not have streets for all other troubles, i.e. during the conversion, it is necessary to change the boundaries of the plots and lay new ones.
Meanwhile, in the Live Streets blog, Varlamov and Katz's idea is perfectly illustrated by the example of Frankfurt am Main, which in just 40 years has gone from being a “car-friendly city” to a pedestrian city. In order to see this, it is enough to look at the Hauptwache Square: only the huge entrance to the underground passage now reminds of the busy traffic on it; the street became exclusively pedestrian in several stages. "At the same time, - the author of the blog notes, - the city did not die in traffic jams and did not stop developing." Users, however, doubt that the domestic “urban planning product” will be able to rise to such a quality. Blogger Irina Čuma, for example, writes that large projects in the spirit of “sustainable development” are helped, in particular, by the EU funds, “and in Russia there is no one to report to, what you gave, then eat”.
Speaking of quality: “Imagine a small town on the coast of the bay, almost 100 great houses, a shopping center, a library, a swimming pool and not a single soul around,” blogger samsebeskazal writes about Kitsault, Canada. It was built over 20 years ago near a molybdenum mine and was abandoned almost immediately when production closed. Users are delighted - how the abandoned city has survived in such an amazing state: all communications are working, the asphalt has not cracked, even the furniture in the houses is intact, even though now you can move in and live. “Here you can get to the mid-eighties if you go to the Chernobyl zone, to Pripyat,” recalls chivonapets. - But everything is crumpled up there. And here is a completely different matter. " However, bloggers do not know what to do with this “museum”: “Too far from the main thoroughfares, not close to the open sea either. Tourism there most likely will not survive. It is also not suitable for a military town, reflects nordlight_spb. "Only if some scientific center can really do it, especially secret."
We will conclude this review with the blog of Sergey Estrin, who published in it a note about one remarkable artifact of his collection - a white leather reticule, tried by the architect as a new material for drawing. To readers of her blog, Estrin notes that the search for him is often extravagant: “What have I already painted? A spatula on cardboard, a pin on wax, a shoebrush, a feather, a cigarette butt … ". This time, the architect painted with copper acrylic from a tube: this is how hills and towers appeared on the bag - "there is the Pisa tower, there are the towers of San Gimignano, the famous creation of the Eiffel, the Kremlin …".
